I am in the process of breaking in a Grado Green2 right now. I bought it out of curiosity, and when I first got it, it sounded muffled and rolled off. I put it in a drawer, thinking that it was not my cup of tea. But because of some favorable reviews I subsequently read, I thought, "I have not given it a fair test," so I decided to give it a good break-in. After about 20+ albums, I must admit it is sounding better. Not as muffled now, and the detail is increasing. The top end sounds more natural, not as rolled off. I intend to give it another 20 albums or so before finally evaluating it, but frankly, I don't think it will ever improve enough to be one of my main cartridges. The carts that are in my regular rotation are Denon DL-103/R and DL-301II, Nagaoka MP-200, AT-440MLb, and AT-VM95ML, all on either a Technics SL-1200 or SL-1800 II with KAB tonearm damping. Of course, all of these carts cost more than the Grado Green2, but they have better detail and faster transition than I expect the Grado Green2 will ever have (the stylus is a bonded elliptical, and we don't even know the dimensions of it, while all the other carts mentioned above are nudes), and they have a quite different voicing.

BTW, I have had no problems with hum, and it definitely is "warmer" than the carts I usually listen to.

(You may like the Grado voicing, so this may be the best choice for you, but a perhaps "better" performer in this general price range might be the Nagaoka MP-110.)

Grado has their fans in this forum, I believe you will here from our friend Mr CaféLatte soon, he likes Grado very much. I haven’t heard the Green, I bought a LP Gear The Vessel for a similar amount, and it has a nice upgrade path of even better styluses. The LP The Vessel has an easy-listening sound with smooth treble and a good bass response.

The little bit more expensive Nagaoka MP-110 has many fans, and Sumiko Rainier is a tempting option for a little bit more. They too has an upgrade path - you can keep the generator/cartridge house and change the stylus for even better performance.

I can't speak for the Green2, but I recently added a Red2 to my collection and found it to be competitive with the highest communally rated cartridges I have: only very moderate hum, and "that" only detectable with headphones on non-musical-content outer grooves my SL1200Mk5 and SL1800 Mk2 turntables. And in spite of "only" being an elliptical, it seems to find and present well all of the look-for discrete trivialities I want to hear from vinyl playback. Most of my listening is done with Grado 125 and 225 headphones.

Grado and direct drive:
Some DD motors are self-contained, with the platter on top. These are generally pretty well shielded, so should pose no problem.
Some DDs have the platter as part of the motor, the platter being the rotor. These can allow the magnetic impulses driving the platter to affect the cartridge. he Grados are unshielded, therefore can hum.

I am in the process of breaking in a Grado Green2 right now. I bought it out of curiosity, and when I first got it, it sounded muffled and rolled off. I put it in a drawer, thinking that it was not my cup of tea. But because of some favorable reviews I subsequently read, I thought, "I have not given it a fair test," so I decided to give it a good break-in. After about 20+ albums, I must admit it is sounding better. Not as muffled now, and the detail is increasing. The top end sounds more natural, not as rolled off. I intend to give it another 20 albums or so before finally evaluating it, but frankly, I don't think it will ever improve enough to be one of my main cartridges. The carts that are in my regular rotation are Denon DL-103/R and DL-301II, Nagaoka MP-200, AT-440MLb, and AT-VM95ML, all on either a Technics SL-1200 or SL-1800 II with KAB tonearm damping. Of course, all of these carts cost more than the Grado Green2, but they have better detail and faster transition than I expect the Grado Green2 will ever have (the stylus is a bonded elliptical, and we don't even know the dimensions of it, while all the other carts mentioned above are nudes), and they have a quite different voicing.

BTW, I have had no problems with hum, and it definitely is "warmer" than the carts I usually listen to.

(You may like the Grado voicing, so this may be the best choice for you, but a perhaps "better" performer in this general price range might be the Nagaoka MP-110.)

Grados are 15°-tracking angle cartridges. For best performacne on 20°-cutting-angle records they have to be tilted like this:

Depending on what kind of tonearm you have the spacer will differ in thickness, so you have to experiment - but you might be surprised. This especially helps against the muffled sound, but also dynamics etc. can be improved.

Man, Grados sure need a lot of coddling to sound good. They may be cheap but they’re extremely picky. I’ve always found the Grado sound to be pleasant but my Grado Prestige2 never fared well on difficult-to-track records. It just had me wanting a stylus better than a bonded elliptical.

I have heard the pro's and cons of the Grado so maybe the audio-technica AT91R might be better.I put a Denon DL-8 on my Technics and so far it sounds good. But I have heard of people mounting the screws upside down on the headshell and cartridge. Does that really change the Sound?

I have heard the pro's and cons of the Grado so maybe the audio-technica AT91R might be better.I put a Denon DL-8 on my Technics and so far it sounds good. But I have heard of people mounting the screws upside down on the headshell and cartridge. Does that really change the Sound?

I am a "nuts up" guy! :D Not for sound reasons though. To me it's easier to mount that way and use different size screws.

Grados are 15°-tracking angle cartridges. For best performacne on 20°-cutting-angle records they have to be tilted like this:
Grado installation.JPG

That contradicts the written instructions from Grado. I have just checked, and the instructions say to mount the cartridge and arm level with the record surface. In fact, there is this specific warning: "Do not add any material between the cartridge and the headshell to correct for VTA."